"And now it's time to...Kick Out The Jams, Motherfuckeeeeeers!”

By Sergio Ariza

Detroit was known in the
early 1960s for two things, being the motor city, where most American cars were
made, and for being the headquarters of Motown (the name of the famous record
company, which was nothing other than the acronym of Motor Town) - but it is also
known for being one of the toughest. One with a future as grey as the skies
contaminated by the city’s big factories, but from there would come some of the
rawest rock groups in history, led by the MC5
of Wayne Kramer and his ‘younger
brothers’, theStooges of Iggy Pop. For a moment MC5 were the great hope of rock but, as could
not be otherwise, their musical and political radicalism would prevent them
from achieving all the recognition they deserved; although a new generation
would use them as reference points and make them the beacon on which was built punk
of the next decade.Wayne Kramer was born on
April 30, 1948 in Detroit and from an early age he knew that his future was not
going to be on an General Motors’ assembly line. Practically attached to the
neck of his guitar, he would find in music a way to channel his rebellious
spirit and, above all, to remain true to himself. In high school he met a
soulmate who thought exactly like him and with whom he would form a friendship
for life: Fred 'Sonic' Smith. Both led their own bands, played the guitar and
loved all kinds of music that was fast and aggressive, from Chuck
Berry and James Brown to the
surf of Dick Dale or the garage rock
bands. Soon the two bands joined, under the leadership of Kramer, and called themselves
Bounty Hunters. At that time Kramer
played a Fender Esquire and was beginning to attract attention in the city.

In 1964 they decided that
the time had come to look for a manager, and their first choice was Rob Deminer. But Derminer, who had
changed his surname to Tyner in homage to Coltrane's
pianist, turned out to be a more than remarkable singer and his 'beatnik' and
leftist oratory sat like a glove on the explosive music of a band that, with their
100 watt Vox Super Beatle amplifiers, sought to be the loudest in the city.
Shortly after arrived bassist Michael
Davis and drummer Dennis 'Machine
Gun' Thompson and the formation was complete. It was then that Rob Tyner renamed them MC5 (which was
nothing other than Motor City Five).

In a short time their wild
performances caught the attention of the poet and leftist activist, John Sinclair, who became their new
manager. A band like MC5 could not have a typical manager; and Sinclair was certainly
not that. His motto, as head of the White Panthers, was "total assault on the culture under any
possible means, including rock and roll, dope and fucking in the streets."
In a short time they had become the most dangerous, and adored, group in their
city. The band gradually improved as Kramer grabbed a Gibson ES-335, Smith a
Gretsch Tennessean and the bass player a Fender Precision. Songs like Black to Comm or the cover of I Can Only Give You Everything by Them demonstrated an incredible rawness
in the middle of the summer of love. Their influences expanded, along with
their beloved R & B, something they shared with the leading names on the Detroit
scene such as Bob
Seger or Mitch Ryder, and they added
the aggressiveness and free spirit of free jazz figures like Ornette Coleman or Sun Ra.

Their second single, for a
local company, contained two original songs that would reappear later in their
discography, Borderline and Lookin 'At You. Their concerts were
events in the area, with one critic describing them as the closest thing to an
earthquake or a hurricane. The crisscrossed guitars of Kramer and Smith were
like a bull in a china shop. Kramer was starting to use new instruments, first
a Les Paul, which would soon be stolen, and then a Firebird and a Stratocaster,
the models to which he would remain faithful for a longer time. However he
predominantly used the Stratocaster, to which he added a 'humbucker' and then painted
with the colors of the US flag.

In the summer of 1968 their
fame began to go beyond their area of ​​regional influence and became the talk
of the world of music. Especially after a tour of the East Coast and several
concerts at home where they destroyed headliners as big as the Big Brother & The Holding Company
by Janis Joplin or Cream. When MC5 played at home
(Detroit's Big Ballroom was like their stadium to them) they were unstoppable,
bringing madness to the faithful who compared their concerts to orgies. The concert
with Clapton's bandwas
so commented that the Rolling Stone magazine dedicated an
article that made them 'the next big thing'. But their controversial fame
preceded them, something that would become clearer with their next concert.At the end of August the
Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, two months after the
assassination of Robert Kennedy and
with the protests against the Vietnam War at its height, the atmosphere was
very hot. As MC5 themselves said the US was at war not only in Vietnam but in
the streets of their own country and they were in the front line; as proof of
this they were the only ones who had the balls to get up on stage that day. Of
course Kramer wore his Stratocaster with the flag with the stars and stripes...
and this moment passed into the history of the US with riots, detainees and
multiple injuries.

If the tumultuous year of
1968 had to have a soundtrack, that can be no other than Kick Out The Jams, an album that is a riot in itself. Finally
signed by Elektra (to whom they recommended the Stooges, getting them signed as
well), it was decided that there was no better way to capture the essence of
the band than to make a live record, of course at home, in the Grande Ballroom.
On October 30 and 31 1968, an album was recorded that begins as follows: "Brothers and sisters , the time has come for each
and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether
you are going to be the solution!" .The debut of MC5 then
became one of the great live albums in the history of rock. Propelled by the
guitars of Kramer and Smith, they release an adrenaline rush in these eight
songs that preempt the energy and rawness of punk. The phrase "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!"
used to be shouted by the band to other groups when they started with the
endless jams of the time but it ended up becoming the war cry of their
concerts. The moment when people went crazy with one of the most brutal riffs
in history. The solos of Kramer, the lead guitarist, were dirty and loud, full
of a heavy vibrato, while 'Sonic' Smith was a prisoner to the rhythm.The album was a success
reaching number 30 in the charts in a short time but controversy followed them
and, although their company censored - after the first editions - the 'motherfuckers', changing it for 'brothers and sisters' , that did not
prevent the Hudson chain of stores removing the album from its shop windows.
The response of the band was as expressive as expected. They booked an ad in
which, over a photo of Tyner, read the words: "Fuck Hudson!". The stores’ response was to withdraw all of
Elektra’s albums. Too many problems, too much chaos and too much aggressiveness.
What had begun as a clear omen of their ascension to Olympus rock, ended with the
band being expelled from their label, and almost turned into outcasts for the
rest of the industry.The band did not seem to
care and they signed to Atlantic Records. In May of 1969 a festival was held in
Detroit called the Rock & Roll Revival in which the three headliners were
Chuck Berry, Sun Ra and MC5; an honor for a band that considered themselves something
like the strange bastard son of the first two. Shortly afterwards they began
recording their second album, Back In The
USA, for which they brought in Jon
Landau as producer. This man was a Rolling
Stone critic without much experience but he would end up being fundamental
in the career of Bruce
Springsteen. Landau looked for a sound similar to the rock
and roll of the 50s, so it is not surprising that the album was opened with Tutti Frutti by Little Richard and ended with the title song by Chuck Berry.Landau wanted short and
compact songs: at the start this was not a problem but his way of recording
went against the most basic instincts of the band, who were accustomed to letting
themselves go in their live performances. To top it off, the drummer had to
record with a metronome and the bassist was replaced a couple of times by
Kramer, after innumerable unsatisfactory attempts. The result did not please
the fans of the band, nor the members themselves, who saw the result as
something tame - but in the end proved to be tremendously influential,
especially in punk rock. It may be that it lacks the clout of Kick Out The Jams but, song for song, it
is the best album of the band, with classics like Tonight, the definitive version of Lookin At You (listen closely to the solo), American Ruse or Shakin
'Street , sung by Smith who also plays his Rickenbacker 450-12. For this
album they had already moved on to the Super Reverbs and Kramer shines with a
Telecaster, also with 'humbucker'.

In spite of everything the
album did not get further than a disappointing position 137 in the charts,
leaving the group frustrated, and so they decided to produce their following
record themselves. In the late 1970s they traveled to London to play at a
festival where they were not paid, and their rage turned it into an incredible
live show, with Kramer showing off with an Epiphone Wilshire, and Sonic Smith
dressed in his space suit long before the appearance of Kiss. It would be in the English capital where they would record Sister Anne that, along with Baby Won’t Ya, made up the most
devastating and unstoppable start to a rock album on this side of Exile On Main Street, with Rocks Off and Rip This Joint.High Time was the album in which
they best knew how to transfer the energy of the live show to the studio, but
when it came out the world had forgotten them. In addition the drugs were
playing havoc with the band. Little by little members left until Kramer and
Smith, the only survivors, decided to throw in the towel in 1972. On December
31 of that year they decided to get together to say goodbye at the place where
they had left the most impression, the Grande Ballroom. What should have been a
farewell in style turned into a funeral attended only by dozens of people.
Kramer left the stage a desolate figure.Kramer then spent two years
in jail for selling cocaine to a plainclothes agent in 1975, an incident that Mick Jones would immortalize in the Clash's Jail Guitar Doors. On leaving, he formed Gang War with another guitar outlaw, Johnny
Thunders, but the project did not last long and Kramer began a fruitful solo
career that would lead him to write soundtracks for movies and television
series. He never forgot his time in jail, however, and ended up working with
the organization Jail Guitar Doors to allow inmates to have access to musical instruments,
as well as playing in several prisons. His solo career is more than worthy but
what gives him a position of honor in the world of rock was his time in MC5.
Although the original formation could never be reunited due to the early deaths
of Rob Tyner in 1991 and Fred 'Sonic' Smith in 1994, Kramer has carried the
group's flame several times, first in 2003, along with the other survivors and
people influenced by them like Lemmy by Mötörhead or Ian Astbury by The Cult.Now, following the death of
Michael Davis in 2012, Kramer has revived the group's flame to celebrate the
50th anniversary of Kick Out The Jams
with people like Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi and Marcus Durant of Zen
Guerrilla. And in some ways Kramer does not see the difference between 1968
and 2018 very clear, as he notes that "today
there is a corrupt regime in power, an endless war is being waged millions of miles
away and uncontrollable violence shakes our country. (...) My goal is that the audience
leaves these concerts fueled by the positive and unifying power of rock music " How could it be
otherwise, the last concert will be in Detroit, so it's the perfect time to
shout again loudly: "KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKEEEEERS!".